Philadelphia 76ers: Shake Milton’s ceiling for the 2019-20 season
The Philadelphia 76ers made a long-term investment in Shake Milton this summer, but can he produce for the franchise this upcoming season?
After playing his rookie season on a two-way contract, the Philadelphia 76ers rewarded Shake Milton‘s hard work with their G-League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats, with a four-year contract. Like Zhaire Smith, Furkan Korkmaz and Matisse Thybulle before him, now is an excellent time to explore what Milton’s ceiling can be this season.
Despite averaging nearly 25 points and five assists per game in the G-League, Milton’s rookie season playing for the Sixers was less than spectacular. He only played in 20 games averaging 4.4 points,1.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists, while converting 39.1 percent of his field goals and 31.8 percent of his 3-pointers.
The combo guard took on the point guard responsibility in this past summer league for Philly and it produced bad results. He averaged 9.7 points,1.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.3 turnovers, while shooting 16.7 percent from the floor and 7.7 percent from behind the arc (stats per RealGM). Despite this only being summer league, it does raise some questions on if he’s capable of being a backup point guard for the club.
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In the past, I wrote about it’s unlikely that Milton will get a consistent role off the bench at either guard spot this season. If his summer league stats are any indication, Trey Burke and Raul Neto are far more capable backup playmakers at this point. At the shooting guard spot James Ennis, Smith, Thybulle and even Korkmaz are ahead of Milton on that depth chart as well.
Based on last season’s stats, along with his summer league stats and the current depth charts at the guard positions, Milton has a very low floor entering this season. However, he could end up having on of the bigger gaps between his floor and ceiling of the team’s young players.
It’s doubtful that he breaks through the shooting guard depth chart. There are just too many good players in that rotation that he would have to beat out, which is unlikely at the moment. He could surpass Korkmaz on that depth chart, but it’s unlikely he passes anyone else. The point guard spot on the other hand gives him the biggest opportunity to grow this season.
Neither Burke nor Neto are far from a sure thing, as I have written about in the past. If neither can provide quality depth behind starter Ben Simmons because of injury or lack of consistency, then Milton could end up getting a shot at the job as the primary backup point guard. Hopefully, his failings in summer league will help him develop into a solid playmaker entering this season. At 6-foot-6 has a lot of potential as a dynamic backup point guard.
If he does become the Sixers backup point guard this season, it doesn’t mean he’s reached his full potential at the position. It just means he reached his ceiling in his projected role with the team. Mitlon is still only 22-years-old and has some developing to do beyond this season. If the other point guards on the roster can’t perform well and he can improve in the areas that he struggled in during summer league, then being Philly’s backup playmaker this season isn’t an unrealistic goal.
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It’s unlikely that Milton reaches his ceiling this season as Simmons’ backup, but if he does, then the Philadelphia 76ers will begin to see the returns on the long-term investment they made on him this summer. His floor is being an end of bench player and his ceiling is becoming the backup point guard.